March Mysteries Unveiled: Tech Scams, AI Marvels, and a Dash of Retro Intrigue
Keep up to date on curated AI, security, tips, tricks and more with The Digital Life!
Hey there, tech enthusiasts and VIPs! Enjoy your quadrennial extra day, where it’s not quite last month and not quite March. In proper Dad-joke fashion, let’s “leap” right into the digital world's highs and lows. 🌐😜
In this issue:
Coinbase Scam Alert: Users face a cunning social engineering scam, losing over $4 million.
Facebook Funeral Fraud: Scammers exploit grief with fake livestream links for funerals.
Global Surveillance Exposed: Discover the massive data collection behind your weather app.
OpenAI's Sora: A groundbreaking tool creating videos from text, stirring both awe and ethical debates.
Sports Streaming Shake-Up: ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros hint at a game-changing partnership.
Windows' AI Magic: Microsoft's Generative Erase to transform photo editing with AI.
Color Leap: Dive into historical color palettes for your next creative project.
Gravitricity's Genius: A Finnish mine becomes a gravity-powered energy storage system.
Let's embrace the marvels and challenges of technology together, and remember, sharing is caring! If you find something intriguing, pass it on. 🙂
On security and privacy
(or, can I click on anything anymore? 😂)
Warning - we’ve had a couple of clients targeted this month! Coinbase users are being warned about a social engineering scam that has already led to the theft of over 1,400 Ethereum, valued at approximately $4 million. The scam involves tricking users into resetting their login credentials, thus letting scammers in to drain their accounts. If you receive any e-mail with a sense of urgency anything related to finance - STOP. GO TO THEIR WEBSITE. LOGIN OR CALL THEM DIRECTLY.
Speaking of urgency, what could be more urgent than arrangements for a deceased loved one? Here, scammers take over or create fake social media pages, tricking grieving families by offering fake funeral livestream links, leading to financial loss. Scammers create convincing posts using details from real funeral services to make it more convincing. These scams can reach thousands, reminding us to be cautious and skeptical of online requests for money, especially around sensitive events like funerals.
“The advertising technology ecosystem is the largest information-gathering enterprise ever conceived by man. And it wasn’t built by the government.” This is just one of the tasty tidbits that will leave your eyes wide open after this story. Yes, even your weather app transmits information to the global surveillance apparatus. 😮
News bits
Videos on the fly with a few words to prompt the system. A dream? That’s OpenAI’s goal with Sora, sparking excitement and concern. It blends text and image-generating tools with advanced neural networks to create high-quality, dynamic videos. However, it also raises ethical concerns about misinformation and the societal impact of realistic AI-generated content - election time anyone?
Right after the Super Bowl…a new sports streaming partnership involving ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros could be in the works. This collaboration could significantly impact how sports content is distributed and consumed, potentially offering more diverse viewing options to fans. With sports streaming in the bucket, will cable finally die?
Microsoft has placed a huge monetary bet on AI, and you can be sure you’ll see it more and more on Windows machines. This one will be super handy. Generative Erase for the Windows Photos app will allow users to easily remove unwanted elements like leashes and photobombers from images using AI. Depending on your settings you’ll see features like this and Windows CoPilot popping up soon.
Interesting leftovers
What color was popular in 1920? Look no further! Color Leap is a web application designed to explore historical color palettes. It aims to provide users with inspiration from color schemes spanning various periods, enabling creatives and designers to apply these palettes in modern projects. Cool! 🌈
It’s not all bad!
Drop a rock down a hole, store the energy, and save the world. Brilliant! Gravitricity, an Edinburgh-based startup, is transforming a Finnish mine into Europe's first gravity energy storage system, harnessing surplus energy to hoist massive weights and release them to generate electricity during peak demand. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to dig a hole…..😂
In closing
Despite all the technology doomsaying, one can’t deny it can improve people’s lives. ICYMI, we enjoyed this Super Bowl commercial from Google highlighting life changes in those with different abilities.